Arizona’s now-solved cold-case victim’s son becomes an Austin police officer

AUSTIN, Texas – A 26-year-old Arizona cold case it was solved.

One of the victim’s sons, Garrett Miller, is a police officer in Austin. He wanted to help others going through what he did.

His mother, Sarah Jane Carr, was murdered in Phoenix on July 9, 1998. She was 28 years old. Her killer has been on the loose for decades.

“My mom had gone to this guy’s house with a friend and an argument ensued and he ended up shooting and killing my mom and then he ran away,” Miller said.

Miller was only two years old at the time. He and his siblings were in a foster home in Arizona. They were then adopted by their grandparents and moved to Kerrville, Texas. He finally pieced together what happened when he was a teenager.

“Once it clicked, I would probably say in high school, and it started to make sense to me, it was really hard,” he said. “Growing up in high school, I had a few run-ins with the law and I thought that was going to be my path and my destiny.”

Carr was the mother of six children. Miller was emotional as he described it.

“She’s beautiful. I see pictures, maybe I’m biased because she’s my mom, but I’d say she was probably one of the most beautiful women to ever walk the Earth,” Miller said. “It’s just the stories I hear. She’s just a light to everyone. She was the life of the party. She lit up rooms when she walked in. She wasn’t afraid of anyone or anything. My mom had some demons she was fighting, but by demons she was a mother first and foremost she would do anything for her children i think if she was here today she would be the best mother ever.

Detectives had a suspect and his nickname in Carr’s case, but were unable to fully identify him until 2016 as Javier Lorenzano-Nunez, now 58. He just had to find it.

Meanwhile, in 2019, Miller applied to the Austin Police Academy, choosing Austin after considering it in high school and was accepted after applying to different agencies.

“One of the reasons is my sense of injustice and my sense of ‘will I ever get justice when my day comes?’ That’s kind of the catalyst for why I wanted to be a cop, because I didn’t want other people to feel the way I did growing up or even after that,” he said.

When he graduated from the academy, a trainer gave him a special pair of handcuffs as a gift.

“Once the ball started rolling with my mother’s case, I said, you know what, I have to save this for a special occasion and I want to use them when and if the day comes when my mother’s killer is extradited back,” he said. said.

On July 9, 2024, the 26th anniversary of Carr’s death, detectives told Miller they had found Lorenzano-Nunez in Mexico. He was extradited to the US in October.

“When I found out the anniversary date, I was kind of speechless,” Miller said. “There were many emotions. It’s still kind of surreal and it’s been almost a month now, but it’s been nice to process it.“

He could see the authorities putting those special handcuffs on Lorenzano-Nunez.

“It was like a little cherry on top,” Miller said.

Miller says he found his calling as a police officer.

“Knowing that I can be there for people on their worst day and bring them some kind of comfort, that’s one of the best feelings. I have a soft spot for children who grow up in broken homes and for mothers and single mothers. who have addiction problems,” he said. “Anybody that’s going to listen to my story, I’m trying to relate to people and especially these kids, the younger kids that are on the same path that I’ve been on, I’m trying to tell them, ‘hey, things are getting better.’ I can understand why they behave the way they do in certain cases.”

He encourages others going through similar situations not to give up.

“This is kind of a testament to what goes on behind the scenes at police departments. Mine has been a cold case for 26 years. There were days when I would wake up and think that nothing would be done. Nothing was going to happen,” he said. “My message is not to lose hope and that things are being worked on. There are many things that people cannot see. I hope that people who are possibly in the same situation as me are dealing with something similar, that they can see this and say, “Hey, he was right. It took him 26 years. You know, it’s my birthday.”